Achan (ā'kăn) - called also Achar - is a figure mentioned by the Book of Joshua in connection with the fall of Jericho and conquest of Ai. The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. ... The Taking of Jericho, by Jean Fouquet 2005- Entering Jericho from the South. ... Ai (Hebrew: ; heap of ruins) refers to one or two places in ancient Israel: A city mentioned along with Heshbon by Jeremiah 49:3, whose location is currently unknown, and which may or may not be the same as: A Canaanite royal city which according to the Book of Joshua...

According to the narrative of the text, Achan pillaged an ingot of gold, a quantity of silver, and a costly garment, from Jericho; the text states that this was a violation of a divine order to completely destroy Jericho, its population, and its culture. The Book of Joshua claims that this act resulted in the Israelites being collectively punished by God, in that they failed in their first attempt to capture Ai, with 34 Israelite lives lost. The Israelites use cleromancy to decide who was to blame, and having identified Achan, stone him to death, as well as his sheep, other livestock, and, according to many interpretations, his wife and children. Their remains were burnt by a suddenly appearing divinely sent fire, according to the text, and stones piled on top. Look up Genocide in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Collective punishment is a term describing the punishment of a group of people for the crime of a few or even of one. ... Cleromancy, sortilege, casting lots or casting bones is a form of divination in which an outcome is determined by random means, such as the rolling of a die. ... For the British Parliamentary discipline, see Collective responsibility Collective Responsibilty is a concept, or doctrine, according to which people are to be held responsible for other peoples actions by tolerating, ignoring, or harboring them, without actively collaborating in these actions. ...

Rashi, and many opinions in the Talmud, argue that the stoning was only carried out on the livestock and Achan himself, and that his children were merely brought forward to witness the Israelites ... stone them (Biblical text with emphasis added). The Talmud writers do however admit the possibility of the children being also stoned, arguing that since they had kept silent about their father's actions, they were complicit in the crime. One tradition, seemingly older, that is reported by the Classical Rabbinical literature, states that Achan's crime was far worse than the Biblical account appears - Achan had, according to these Rabbis, also stolen a magic idol with a golden tongue, silver votive gifts dedicated to it, and the expensive cloth that covered it. Other classical Rabbis portray Achan as guilty of more earthly crimes, claiming that he had committed incest, or performed work on the sabbath (equally immoral in their eyes). Rashi (1040-1105) (Artists imagination) Rashi רשי is a Hebrew acronym for רבי שלמה יצחקי (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi), (February 22, 1040 – July 13, 1105), a rabbi in France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Tanakh. ... The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... Rabbi, in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root word רַב, rav, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished (in knowledge). Sephardic and Yemenite Jews pronounce this word רִבִּי ribbī; the modern Israeli pronunciation רַבִּי rabbī is derived from a recent (18th... An idol is a man-made object that is venerated in some way. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article concerns the Sabbath in Christianity. ...

In the narrative, before Achan is stoned to death, he first confesses his actions, which the Classical Rabbis argued would have saved him from Gehenna (the classical-era Jewish conception of hell). From a textual point of view, it exhonorates the Israelites from any question of condemning a man without evidence other than cleromancy, and thus avoids questions over the validity of supernatural tests of guilt. Confession of sins is an integral part of the Christian faith and practice. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) A hell, according to many religious beliefs, is an afterlife of suffering where the wicked or unrighteous dead are punished. ...

The narrative states that the location for this punishment of Achan, which lies between Jericho and Ai, became know as the vale of Achor in memory of him. Since a growing majority of archaeologists believe that the Israelite conquest of Jericho and Ai never happened (since they were already abandoned ruins at the time), this narrative is seen by most biblical scholars as an aetiological myth providing a folk etymology for Achor, at the point in the narrative where the vale of Achor is necessarily crossed. It is significant that Achan's name means one who troubles, in Hebrew, supposedly in commemoration of his crime, and what it brought upon him; it is unlikely for a historic figure to be named in memory of an event that doesn't happen until many years after they are named, but quite plausible for a character in a folk story to be named descriptively.^[1][2]. Etiology (alternately aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. ... Folk etymology or popular etymology is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore, as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... Hebrew redirects here. ...

The narrative somewhat anachronistically describes the garment that Achor stole as Babylonish; the time of the Israelite invasion is usually dated to the 15th or 12th centuries BC, but between 1595BC and 627BC Babylon was under foreign rule, and between 1595BC and 1155BC was not even called Babylon (it was called Karanduniash). For this reason, most textual scholars are fairly certain that this part of the Achor narrative was written during the 7th century BC or later, and certainly not contemporary with the events it describes. It is not certain, however, that the whole Achor narrative dates from this time, as textual critics believe that the Achor narrative may have been spliced together from two earlier source texts; the words in the first part of Joshua 7:25, all Israel stoned him with stones (emphasis added) show a different style and tradition from those at the end of the verse: they stoned them with stones (emphasis added)^[3]. Look up Anachronism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Babylon (in Arabic: بابل; in Syriac: ܒܒܙܠ in Hebrew:בבל) was an ancient city in Mesopotamia (modern Al Hillah, Iraq), the ruins of which can be found in present-day Babil Province, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Baghdad. ... Textual criticism or lower criticism is a branch of philology or bibliography that is concerned with the identification and removal of errors from texts. ...

References

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain. This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897. The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Eastons Bible Dictionary generally refers to the Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, by Matthew George Easton M.A., D.D. (1823-1894), published three years after Eastons death in 1897 by Thomas Nelson. ...

1. ^ Israel Finkelstein, The Bible Unearthed
2. ^ Matthew Sturgis, It Aint Necessarily So
3. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia